Over the Puke Threshold with Maui Tacos

It was quite a week.

I won’t lay it out in one post, but it was a great experience all around. We arrived in Maui on Wednesday afternoon. The three-hour time difference led me to wake up at 4 a.m. on Thursday, so I had a little breakfast and got out there just before sunrise. I had a terrific run of about 8.5 miles along the coast, but the heat, even at that early hour, let me know what we’d be in for.

I’ll skip ahead to Saturday afternoon and the Front Street Mile in Lahaina. I’ll give you the photo-essay treatment. We checked in at about 2:30 and I got my T-shirt.

There were dozens of kids of various ages and the old dudes had to wait for all their heats to finish.

It was almost 5 p.m. and 83 degrees before we toed the line. Then we got our instructions from Forrest Gump.

And we’re off!

It isn’t always true for longer races, but standing at the start of a mile race, you can pretty much tell right off who’s going to be in front of you the whole way and who’ll be behind you. And I was right. I held a pretty good pace the whole way but the shirtless winner came in at 5:21.

Here I am at the finish. Though it looks like I’m moseying along, I came in fifth with a 6:46.

 It was good enough for a medal.

Unfortunately for me, there was no water or sports drink at the finish line and I was feeling a bit queasy. I sent the Lovely Mrs. A. to buy some. Fortunately for her and you, I was alone and unobserved as I retched up my lunch – fish tacos, rice and beans from Maui Tacos. While I was spewing, I could only think about how proud Viper would be. I’ve run a mile faster, but it was an excellent effort under the conditions, and the vomit just proved I gave it my all.

I felt immensely better afterward, and once I drank two liters of cold water, I was ready for dinner. After a shower and a change, we headed to a pizza place where I had an excellent dish of tomato-basil pasta. And I had less than 12 hours before the start of my half-marathon.